Penelope's Nursery. Quite possibly, the most put together room in our house.

I've been working on this post for so long. So, so long. But every time I thought it was done, something cool would arrive or I'd find something new for her room, and then I felt good about not prematurely posting the greatness that is this room.

The only thing missing are these super adorable vinyl mermaid's my dear friend Jamie is making, and I've already seen them (via text) and seriously- so cute. But those will come soon and I'll do an update photo. But because I don't know when those will be coming, but when they do, I'll show you what they look like on the wall. When I say her room is probably the most put together? I mean it. Both Olivia & Jackson's looked really awesome after I was finished, but they are kids and they aren't organized and accessorized like I had them.

Of course.

So the bonus is that Penelope is a baby and for at least a little while, her room will still look this way.

Here is the view when you stand in her doorway and look left. The rug? An amazing, last minute find at IKEA. It is cleverly hiding a giant blue paint stain on the carpet. Because there was ONE TIME where I said I totally didn't need Matt's help but as it turns out, when he says to use a drop cloth, he isn't kidding and is right. Just that one time.

And this is if you are looking straight ahead from the doorway.

Next to her crib, I have a shelf that I bought years ago at Target in the bathroom storage aisle. It used to be scrapbooking supplies, then kid craft things, then scrapbooking, and now it holds Penelope toys.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider artwork is from Hobby Lobby, and The Little Mermaid artwork is from Olivia's room, but originally came from Michaels. We (and by "we" I really mean "I") knew we were going to do an ocean themed room right from the beginning, but if baby #3 was a girl, I figured I'd add mermaids and jazz it up. So the mermaid artwork was the first mermaid thing I added. 

On the shelf is the cute octopus even Olivia and Jackson like that was a gift from my friend Kim. I also have a quote from Goodnight Moon in a sparkly blue frame. That, coincidentally, was a table decoration for my friend Emily's "children's literature" themed shower I did, and because the book is a beloved one in our house, I decided to save it. 

Above the crib is a super adorable, totally custom made sign that reads "Make a wish upon a starfish" that my blogger/etsy/Facebook friend Kayla made. She is amazing. The gold "P" was a birthday present from my friend Amy and I knew right away it was going above the crib.

Also made by Amazing Kayla are the eight wooden ocean themed art pieces above the dresser and changing table. Remember that changing table project? Super easy, but it looks amazing in the nursery. I didn't take a close up of the top of the dresser, but I have a handmade Noah's Ark guy that my mother in law made, a little hat that says "New Sister" the kids got at the school holiday shop in December, a little basket of headbands, and a green vase with shells from Florida (from our honeymoon, even) and some flowers that were on my diaper cake from my baby shower.

Aren't these adorable? I sent her paint swatches of the wall colors and found some images I thought would be cute, and she did the rest. And SUPER fast, too. You can check out Kayla's Etsy page HERE, or her Facebook page HERE.

Now, if I'm standing at the dresser and turn to the corner, this is my view.

Oh! So I found these two ornaments at Kohl's around Christmas time. I bought them, forgot about them, but then couldn't figure out what to do with them. I couldn't find any table top ornament hangers and certainly didn't want to order any online. But then! I happened to find these two wall hangers, which I think are for towels or something, in the summer area of Hobby Lobby. They matched the room and I figured I'd make them work.

I took the floating shelves out of the living room since the new TV stand is where these were, and put them in Penelope's room. The bears were in a huge assortment of toys my friend Michelle gave us. The little blue wooden sign on the top shelf is from Kohl's, and it's a quote from Guess How Much I Love You.

On the bottom shelf is another table decor quote from Emily's baby shower, and a golden mini "P" that I got at Hobby Lobby. Actually, I found it on accident on my search for paper to make my baby shower thank you's. It was totally not anywhere it should be so I figured it was a sign I should have it.

Under that is a picture of Penelope's last ultrasound and well wishes from people from my baby shower. That was such a great surprise and obviously, that's a keepsake. It looks so perfect under the shelves.

And then! I am so damn lucky to have a friend like Shannon. Shannon's owns her own stained glass store called Shannon's Stained Glassery and  not only does she hold classes, but she makes incredible things. The really great thing about being her friend is that she makes you incredible things nobody else will have and she puts so much thought into them. Seriously. I have an amazing goat pendent she made me, and recently I got a really kick ass spoon rest I'll share soon, but by far my favorite gift was this mermaid night light. I hadn't found a night light I liked and little did I know she was making me one. AND the blue glass perfectly matches the wall color and that was a total fluke. So gorgeous.

I am re-purposing a small white cabinet (again, was in the bathroom storage aisle in Target) as a night stand/bookshelf for Penelope. The books that survived Olivia and Jackson are in here, along with a bunch of little kid cd's they don't listen to anymore. Except I don't have a small CD player for them, so that's on my shopping list soon.

Penelope also has a pretty huge closet. The clothes in here are 9 month and up, basically. Her dresser is literally loaded and there is a lot in here. She even has an entire basket of varying size shoes already.  I have a plastic pink chair Olivia used to have in there that I'm sure we'll use someday. Also I have her bath seat and an infant tub, currently inside of her laundry basket. You can't see it, but on the floor I have her play mat my friend Kim also gifted her. Otherwise the cats fight over it, so now I keep it locked in the closet. Jerks.

The shelf is stock full of wipes, lotion, baby bath, extra receiving blankets, bibs, hats, mittens, etc.

The diaper hoard. Organized by size, obviously. I also have kid games in here because we ran out of room on the hallway shelf. But I have enough newborn and size one diapers, I think. The rest are 2, 3, and some 4's.

My inlaw's won a cedar chest in some raffle at a fundraiser they were at. They donated it to Penelope and you can't see it super well, but the inside of the lid says "Penelope Rose". Even though her name is Penelope Rose Mary. But that's OK. So in there I have a baby carrier, some swim diapers, a teddy bear and I think a few other random things Jackson threw in and decided she needs.

So that's her room. It's kind of great. It's easily the happiest little room in the house. I've been doing a little bit as we go and the major things were done awhile ago, it's the little touches I have been working on. But I feel a huge relief having it totally done, so it's ready for her whenever she comes home.

Diaper changing table makeover- not even a Pinterest rip off!

You've been hearing me say I'm going to show you this diaper changing table I rescued from being ugly to being super duper cute. And it's true! I really did! I also didn't rip something off of Pinterest, I did this sucker all on my own. 

So it starts off way back in July. I see this super ugly diaper changing table on a Facebook garage sale site for $30. I haggle the lady down to $20. (Which, not really because nobody else wanted this ugly ass hospital reject looking thing.) 

Look at you, you ugly little thing. And you smell. Shame on you. 

But then I started working. I knew that I wanted the bedroom to be an ocean theme room so I figure maybe if I painted the metal rails a brown/almost sand color, that would work. It came with a "pad" which reeked so bad and was torn up and obviously not the one it was meant to be with because it didn't truly fit. So my first search was to find a fabric I could make a pad out of, but something I could easily wipe. 

And I found it. I found this really funky multi color plastic like fabric and it was on clearance. I bought some poly foam squares, some spray adhesive and had Matt cut me a super thin piece of random wood he had in the garage to fit the top of the changing table.

First thing was to make sure my foam fit my board. It did, thankfully, on first try. I sprayed the hell out of the back of the foam and adhered it to the board. I let that sit for awhile to set, but I also put a bunch of pots and pans and random heavy things on it so I would make sure it stuck.

Next I sprayed the board and the foam with more adhesive and essentially wrapped it like a present

And because I cannot work a glue gun and nobody is going to see the bottom, I used duct table to double make sure my fabric doesn't come off. But I also put heavy things on it to set overnight.

After three coats of spray paint (to cover all of the white and the rusty colored spots that weren't rust), here's what it is.

 Except... it felt naked.

And I had left over blue spray paint that I had used on a project in Olivia's room and I thought, what the hell. Spray the shelves!

Isn't it pretty? So we have three blue walls (the color of the shelves) and one green wall (shown here, it's like a key lime green color). 

But stay tuned, this bedroom is really kicking ass and I have more to show you. Soon. 

But this was a super easy project. And if this project looks similar, it's because I used the same technique to make the bench in my porch (here). Which, after all of this time and two winters so far, it's held up really well. The versatility of being able to just wipe it off is really nice too. Especially in a baby's room because as we all know, shit happens.